From his standing position, Josh looked down—inadvertently, helplessly—at the upper curves of her breasts and the shadow between revealed by the shifting veils. Only one fragile lacing seemed to hold the thing together. He stepped back before her hand on his thigh triggered greater embarrassment for them both.
The woman’s gaze arrowed up to him. “I need to find the Hunter.”
“You can wait until they get home, but you won’t have any water except what you pump from the well. And you’ll be cold as a witch’s...” His face heated, and the words popped out of him. “You can wait for them at my place.”
Her eyes widened—so did his; he couldn’t believe he just offered this gorgeous creature a bunk—then narrowed with judgment. He knew he’d be found wanting. He always was.
“Very well.” She pushed to her feet—was she wearing gold slippers?—which put the top of her dark head below his chin, but she never dropped her gaze. “Take me there.”
Imperious little thing. Misgivings nipped at him. But what choice did he have? He couldn’t leave her there alone. Really, taking her back with him was the neighborly thing, the only thing he could do.
Chapter 3
Adelyn stood between the strange beings known as Bunco and Wolly while the human known as Josh Reimer—he had given her this information freely, as if he didn’t know that names carried their own secret force—went to find what he called the main water valve turnoff. Maybe in the sunlit world, giving words to everything diluted the power of naming.
The dog and horse stared at her suspiciously. She knew Wolly was just a dog because she had tried to impose the verita luna—the Second Truth—on him. Even in her weariness, her musetta powers should have roused him to his alternate shape had he been a wereling, but he only sneezed. And the mere horse—sadly lacking both a spiraling horn and wings—sidled from her, putting one big hoof in the middle of her phae gate.